■ Scott Wilson strokes home Leith's second goal on their way to the Scottish Cup Final

Football won the day at Penicuik this afternoon as Leith Athletic's brilliant under 14 side outpassed and outclassed a bruising Mill Utd side. The Lanarkshire side were supported by a boisterous, noisy and threatening crowd and their lack of respect on the touchlines finally transferred itself onto the pitch as "Mill U"  resorted to aggression over football once the game had ran away from them.

Leith were simply superior all over the pitch and bar the opening nervy first 15 minutes the Edinburgh side were streets ahead of their physically bigger opponents and deservedly won 3-0.

Two thumping goals from Gavin Kneeshaw came either side of a finely worked goal by Scott Wilson and Leith now have the Scottish Cup Final to look forward to in early May where they will play either Dyce BC or Musselburgh Windsor.

A fairly sparse crowd had turned up in Penicuik to welcome the two young sides into the semi-final arena including a smattering of scouts and a contingent from Hamilton. And it was the visiting support that had most to shout about in the opening quarter of an hour with most of the play heading in the direction of Reece Smail in the Leith Athletic goal. Mill Utd had the upper hand in midfield and were forcing errors out of their Leith counterparts.

However the Leith defence stood firm, led superbly by right back Lloyd McGee who had a fine match. Indeed the only real chance that Mill Utd created during that dominant spell was a good strike by Kieran Walker who strode forward from his central midfield role before shooting from 25 yards but his effort flew a couple of metres over the crossbar.

Slowly but surely Leith recovered from a nervous opening period with Gavin Kneeshaw and Sean Murphy getting the passes going and wide players Scott Wilson and Sean Melvin marauding up either flank. One attack up the right hand side saw the ball scrambling about the Mill Utd box before it was hit inches wide by Lloyd McGee.

Suddenly the play was all towards the Hamilton side's goalmouth with triangles of passing seeing the ball played into increasingly dangerous areas. It was one of these moves that led to the opening goal on 20 minutes. A good move through the middle of the Mill defence saw the ball hit towards goal where it was scrambled clear again but this time only to the edge of the box. Lurking there was Gavin Kneeshaw who stepped past the closing down defender before unleashing an unstoppable shot into the top left hand corner of the net.

Five minutes later and it was 2-0. Mill Utd were at full stretch defensively as the passing game of Leith begun to overrun them and a good move down the right saw Sean Melvin skip past his marker and pull a couple of defenders out towards him. The young Leith winger crossed the ball into the path of Gavin Kneeshaw whose first time effort was blocked but the ball fell into the path of Scott Wilson in acres of space towards the back post. He steadied himself before calmly stroking the ball firmly past Roderick Morrison in the Mill goal.

Penicuik went wild with delight as the players formed a black and white ruck with Wilson somewhere near the bottom!

Mill Utd then created their first real chance of the game when a well worked move saw Stephen Fleming in space on the right side of the box but his shot was gathered comfortably by Reece Smail.

That was a rare foray however for the boys in red and white and Leith should have gone in 3-0 ahead when another fine ball was played in by Sean Melvin on the right. Jake Harper was all on his own in the six yard box but somehow the ball crashed off the bar rather than hit the roof of the net and the half ended with the margin at just the two goals.

Half Time 2-0

Jason Coyle maintained the momentum at the start of the second half with a well hit low drive from distance that was saved at the second attempt. The noise was starting to build however from the terrace and on the side of the dug-outs as the Mill Utd "supporters" became increasingly irritated at their favourites being outplayed. The abuse was directed at the referee, linesmen, Leith's supporters and most annoying of all the Leith players. I presume that these people were friends and family members of the Mill Utd players and for them to behave in this way was quite unbelievable. One group of men were led by a particularly noisy "fan" in a white top and in front of him was a woman (who looked liked she was probably a mum) who loudly taunted one of the Leith boys when a shout came out at a higher pitch that intended.

Eventually, referee William Wallace had to intervene on the dug-out side line and ask one of the Mill Utd dads to leave the stadium. This individual had been aggressively noisy from the off and it looked like he had been sounding off to the far side linesman.

Back on the pitch and Leith continued to open Mill Utd up at will with the Hamilton players increasingly affected by the noise from the touchline. On 50 minutes wee Brendan Edwards went clear on the right and shot past the advancing goalkeeper but saw his prodded effort trundle a yard past the left hand post.

The tackles were getting tougher with a few of the Mill lads focusing more on this than playing football. In one such tackle on 55 minutes Jason Coyle was carried off and a direct free kick was awarded. After some delay for treatment Gavin Kneeshaw replied to the aggression in the best possible way by cracking the free kick into the goal off the underside of the bar and the goalkeeper.

It was game over and happily the noise levels started to wane a little. Brendan Edwards was clear three times in the final 10 minutes but was flagged for offside with on one occasion having despatched the ball past Roderick Morrison.

Another fine performance by Leith. Mill Utd were kept at bay throughout and this was in no small way due to the back four who didn't give the Mill Utd forward line any real chances. The boys in black and white thoroughly deserved their win and boy did they celebrate at the end on the pitch and in the dressing room afterwards.

The players and coaches now have a fabulous day to look forward to in May at Airdrie for the Scottish Cup Final.